Ratio Scale

Rating – The percentage of the total potential audience who are exposed to a particular media vehicle. In television, a rating is the number of households with their television sets tuned to a particular program for a specified length of time divided by the total number of households that have television. In print media, ratings are computed using survey data about actual readership rather than information about circulation.

Ratio of output and/or Input Measures – An objective measure of sales force performance that incorporates common ratios used to evaluate salespeople. These ratios include expense ratios, account development and serving ratios, and call activity and/or productivity.

Ratio Scale – A measurement in which the numbers assigned to the attributes of the objects have a natural or absolute zero and that therefore allow the comparison of absolute magnitudes of the objects.

Ration Appeals – 1. (consumer behavior definition) The concept of rational or irrational appeals does not exist in modern consumer behavior thinking but rather this is a term carried over from economics. From the point of view of the consumer, all behavior is rational although it nay appear so to the observer. 2. (industrial definition) Claims that attempt to show that a specific product will yield certain functional benefits. Rational appeals form the core of the most organizational sales messages while more emotional appeals, addressing self-image, life style and the like, are more often used to position products in the consumer marketplace.

Rationalization – An ego defense in which unattainable goals are perceived to be undesirable (sour grapes) and those that are attainable are perceived to be remarkably adequate (sweet lemons).

Rationing – A system of allocating goods and services that are in short supply, other than by price, to prevent prices from rising to unreasonable levels and prevent inequitable distribution. It is often used in periods of emergency.

Raw Materials – 1. (industrial definition) The natural products (coal, iron, crude oil, fish) and farm products (wheat, cotton, fruits) that are sold in their natural state. They are processed only to the level required for economical handling and transport. 2. ( products development definition) The product such as lumber and minerals that are bought for use in the production of other products,either as part of the finished item or in the industrial process.

Repurchase Rate – The volume of purchase and the amount of time that typically occur between consumer or retailer purchasing occasions for a specific product.

Reach – The number of different persons or households exposed to a particular advertising media vehicle or a media schedule during a specified period of time. It is also called cumulative audience, cumulative reach, net audience, net reach, net unduplicated audience, or unduplicated audience. Reach is often presented as a percentage of the total number of persons in a specified audience or target market.

Readership Test – A test of advertising effectiveness of print media in which a sample of readers of a particular issue of a publication are asked whether they noticed and/or read particular ads. It is also called a recognition test

Real Cost – The cost of a product or service adjusted for changes in purchasing power and taking into consideration alternative uses of funds.

Rebate – A return of a portion of the purchase price in the form of cash by the seller to the buyer.

Recall Loss – A type of error caused by a respondent forgetting that an event happened.

Recall Test – A test of advertising effectiveness in which a sample of members of the audience are contracted at a specific time after exposure to a media vehicle and asked to recall advertising messages they remember seeing and/or hearing in the media vehicle. It is called unaided recall if there is no prompting with elements of the ads or commercials being examined. With prompting, the results are called aided recall.

Receipt-of-Goods Dating (ROG) – This denotes that the discount period does not begin until the day the customer receives shipment.

Recession – A turning point in a business cycle characterized by dropping production and increasing unemployment.

Reciprocity – 1. (industrial definition) A buying arrangement in which two organizations agree to purchase one another products. 2. ( sales definition) A special relationship between two companies that agree to purchase products from each other.

Recovery – A phase of the business cycle characterized by increasing gross national product, lessening unemployment, and a leveling out of previously falling prices. It is popularity called an upturn or revival.

Redemption Rate – The number or percentage of sales promotion offers that are acted on by consumers or retailers out of the total number possible.

Redemption Store – An establishment operated by a trading stamp company redeeming stamps for merchandise.

Redlining – The arbitrary exclusion of certain classes of customers, often those from poor neighborhoods, from such economic activities as borrowing money or getting real estate mortgages.

Reference Group – 1. ( consumer behavior definition) A reference group is one that the individual tends to use as the anchor point of evaluating his/her own beliefs and attitudes. One may or may not be a member and may or may not aspire to membership in a reference group; nevertheless, it can have great influence on one’s values, opinions, attitudes, and behavior patterns. A reference group may be positive; that is, the individual patterns his or her own beliefs and behavior to be congruent with those of the group. Or, it may be negative. A negative reference group is just as influential. The church. labor union, political party, or sorority are examples of both positive and negative reference groups for specific individuals. it is also is a term coined by Herbert Hyman to designate a group that an individual uses as a “point of reference” in determining his or her own judgments, preferences, beliefs, behavior. the size of a reference group can be a single individual (although perhaps in this case the term group should not be used) to a very large aggregate of persons such as a political party or religious institution. 2. (consumer behavior definition) The people who serve as a point of reference and who influence an individual’s affective responses, cognition, and behavior.